Of Police Boxes, Fish Fingers, and Koala Bears
by PrettyLittleMonster
Summary: "After all, it isn't every day that a police box pops up in your yard." In which a girl named Jessica finds a strange blue box in her yard, and an even stranger man inside it. For Jessica. One-shot. Probably.


**(Author's Note: Dear Jessica, happy birthday my dear. You are so strong, and I am so honored to have been asked to write this for you. I hope it lives up to your expectations, and I hope I've done justice to the lovely person you are. Also, you have a very good friend who requested I write this for you. She loves you. Don't ever forget that.**

**Standard disclaimers apply. I own nothing but my own imagination.)**

It was the sound that first caught Jessica's attention, that mechanical_ vworp vworp_ that kind of sounds like metal scraping across pavement. She'd been sitting at her dining room table, minding her own business, sketching something that she didn't really like anyway, and that sound started up. She didn't know what it was, but it was driving her mad, so naturally, she decided to follow it. She didn't know what she expected, maybe a kid pulling a squeaky wagon, or a car backfiring, but what she didn't expect was a big blue box sitting in the middle of her backyard.

Jessica stayed back a few feet, a little suspicious of the source of the noise; after all, it isn't every day that a police box pops up in your yard. She rolled her tongue piercing around in her mouth, a nervous habit, and studied the blue structure carefully from a distance. It seemed perfectly normal, as if it had always been there and she just hadn't taken the time to notice.

"I'm going insane," she muttered to herself, never taking her eyes off the box. Why did it seem so natural for it to be there, plopped down out of nowhere, squashing the grass and dandelions underneath.

She took a cautious step towards it, and as she did, the doors flew open, stopping Jessica in her tracks, and a floppy haired man in a fez and a bow tie stumbled out, looking rather confused (and slightly ridiculous, Jessica thought). He looked around, puzzled, and then threw up his hands.

"Oh, this isn't Constantinople! You silly old thing," he groaned, aiming a swift kick at the box. Was he _talking to the box_? Well, it certainly wouldn't be the strangest thing Jessica had seen that day.

"Pardon me, sir," she ventured, taking the tiniest step towards the frenzied man. "Um, can I help you?" He whipped around to face her, obviously having not noticed her until she spoke.

"Hello, have we met?"

"Ah, no. We haven't, it's just that you're in my backyard and I thought... well you looked like you might need some help with your... thing," she offered, gesturing to the police box, which had started to emit a dark smoke from under the doors.

"Oh, right then. Well, I'm the Doctor, and yes, uh-"

"Jessica," she finished for him.

"Yes. Jessica, have you got any fish fingers?"

"What?"

"Yes. And custard. I'm starving," he informed her. Jessica just stared at him for a moment. This couldn't possibly be real.

"Yeah, I... I think we've got some inside," she stammered numbly. She headed for the door, stunned.

"Oh, one more thing," said the Doctor, "What year is it?"

"2015." Jessica was baffled by the fact that someone could not know what year it was. Sure, this man was anything but typical, with the hair, and the box, and the bizarre requests, but to not know the year? That was strange, even by his standards.

"Right, 2015-love this year-and judging by your accent, we're in Australia, correct?"

"Y-yeah," she affirmed tentatively.

"Very good." The Doctor stared at her, seemingly studying every inch of her. She couldn't understand why. He was the one popping up in her backyard. She should be studying him. He apparently didn't find anything out of the ordinary about her, because he simply nodded, with a satisfied look on his face and said,

"Nice shoes," gesturing toward her red converse.

"Uh, thanks."

This was getting weirder by the minute.

* * *

Jessica watched the Doctor carefully from her kitchen window as she searched for fish fingers and custard, scrutinizing his every movement. He was the strangest man she'd ever met, but also the most intriguing. She suddenly wanted to know everything; the story behind the fez, what on earth could be inside that stupid police box, and how and why he ended up here in her yard in the first place. She also wanted to know if he was going to eat the fish and the custard together.

She brought the requested snacks out into the yard and sat down in the grass.

"Hey," She called, waving to him, and the Doctor suddenly popped his head up from whatever nonsense he was fiddling with and-upon seeing that she'd brought him food-came to sit by her. Jessica couldn't help but compare him to a hungry puppy, and she stifled a laugh.

"How's it going?" She asked, nodding towards the blue box.

"Well, fine," he said, puzzled. "Nothing's wrong. There are no missing pieces, the circuits are all working properly-"

Jessica cut him off right there.

"Circuits? You're kidding." Why would a box need circuits? That was absolutely ridiculous. The Doctor just grinned at her.

"I never get tired of explaining this."

* * *

"So... you're an alien."

"Yep."

"And that's your... spaceship."

"My TARDIS, yes," he corrected. She inspected the solid blue doors carefully, feeling the Doctor's eyes on her the entire time.

"But... It's tiny." Jessica couldn't imagine traveling around in something so little. She was getting claustrophobic just thinking about it. The Doctor grinned like a cartoon villain, giving her a look that said, "I know something you don't know."

She put her hand on the door, never breaking eye contact with the Doctor. She immediately felt a fuzzy, humming sensation in the back corner of her brain that she assumed came from the TARDIS. The Doctor gave her an encouraging nod, and she pulled the door open.

It was... enormous.

"No way." She was stunned. She hadn't even gone in yet and she was stunned. She tried to take in all the gorgeous, gold architecture (could a spaceship be considered architecture?), but it was nearly impossible to comprehend what she was looking at. The floor had an almost spider web looking design etched into it, and the walls arched as high up as she could see. She was fascinated, and a little bit scared. She was staring into an alien spaceship after all, and she hesitated to go in, no matter how strange and wonderful it seemed.

The Doctor must have sensed this, because he stepped inside the box and held his hand out to her, giving her a lopsided grin. She took a deep breath, took his hand, and took a step into the box-the TARDIS-or whatever it was.

"Geronimo," she whispered to herself, which for some unknown reason garnered her a look of confusion and slight annoyance from a certain Doctor, but Jessica forgot about it completely as soon as she got a good look at where she was.

"It's... It's so..." The Doctor looked at her expectantly.

"Well?"

"It's bigger on the inside," she breathed. He smiled. "How-"

The Doctor cut her off, explaining the whole alien-Time-Lord-TARDIS thing.

"Wow," she gaped.

"I do love humans," the Doctor chuckled, leaning against the railing the ran around the outside of the room arrogantly, "They're so easily impressed."

"Are you saying there's more?" Jessica asked, eyeing the Doctor slyly.

"That's what I like to hear," he said, beaming. He grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned in close to her. "Jessica, you are in a time machine." She froze. Was he offering to take her somewhere? She immediately began imagining all the places she could go in a time machine; it never crossed her mind to be suspicious or nervous. For some reason, she just couldn't help but trust him.

"What do you say?" He coaxed, "All of time and space at your fingertips. We could go anywhere." The look on his face was dangerously excited. Jessica glanced back through the TARDIS doors at her house, her normal little house, and then back at the Doctor, the mad, intriguing, wonderful Doctor. All of time and space...

"One trip," she relented. Who could say no to all of time and space? The Doctor grinned wildly at her, and started flipping switches and pulling levers on what Jessica assumed to be a control panel. That's when the noise started up again, and Jessica gasped. She only had a moment to think though, because she was suddenly being tossed about like a rag doll, and they were moving! She latched on to the railing as the ship thrashed, hoping they would stop soon. Wherever the Doctor was taking her, it wasn't going be much fun if she had a concussion.

Suddenly the motion stopped, and Jessica collapsed to the floor.

"What was that?" She yelled, a little frustrated that he didn't warn her.

"That was what happens when I don't turn the stabilizers on! Let's go!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and practically dragged her to the door, but stopped just in front of it, letting her walk outside herself.

When she opened the doors, Jessica was not on earth anymore.

The surface of the planet was sea-foam green, and covered in soft plants with tiny violet buds, almost creating a polka dot pattern over the landscape. It stretched on for miles, all the way to the horizon, but that wasn't even the amazing part.

"Look up," the Doctor murmured, pointing toward the quickly darkening sky. There were billions of stars, some tiny and farther away than she could possibly imagine, others so close, Jessica felt as if she could have reached out and touched them.

"It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen." She picked up a pale blue pebble from beside a little stream and turned it over in her hand, before tucking it into her pocket.

"This planet is the very center of the Husquavarna galaxy," the Doctor explained as she explored the terrain. "Native species; koala bears." Jessica scoffed.

"Koalas? Those are from Earth," she corrected him. Nevertheless, Jessica spotted a small furry creature out of the corner of her eye. "No way." She gawked at the animal, exactly like a koala in every way, except it had stunningly black eyes.

"Way," the Doctor mused. "They emigrate to Earth after this planet burns up, long before humans exist." The koala creature scampered away, and Jessica turned back to the Doctor.

"Thank you," she hummed, in awe of everything she'd seen. He didn't reply, just sort of... looked at her for a while, like he was thinking really hard about something. "What?" She asked, her face turning warm.

Then, out of the blue, the Doctor leaned over and kissed her, and Jessica was fairly certain she squeaked a little bit. It wasn't that it was bad-in fact it was anything but-it was just unexpected. He pulled away from her quickly, avoiding her gaze and wringing his hands awkwardly.

"I... I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from I-" But Jessica cut him off, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his, effectively knocking off his fez in the process. This time it was the Doctor who let out a squeak of surprise, but his shock didn't last long, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he hooked his arms around her waist and lifted her a few inches off the ground. When they broke apart and he set her back on the squishy, alien ground, Jessica started laughing.

"I can honestly say, that was the first time I ever kissed an alien. Wasn't as bad as I would have guessed," she teased, nudging him with her elbow and smirking at him.

"Oh just, shut up," he mumbled, turning a light shade of pink. He turned away, but not before Jessica could catch the goofy smile that was plastered on his face.

* * *

When they were back safely on the TARDIS, the Doctor started flipping switches and lever again, but before they moved again, he turned to her.

"What do you want to see?" He asked. "All of time and space, remember? Where should we go next?" He looked so excited. Jessica hated to have to let him down.

"Um, Doctor? I... I really should go home," she told him, distancing herself from his a little. "I can't just leave my life right now." His face fell.

"Of course." Oh he sounded so disappointed. Poor Doctor. He set the coordinates and they started moving again, but this time she watched him flip a couple of little blue switches beforehand, and instead of the insufferable thrashing of the last trip, the motion of the ship was almost unnoticeable.

"I'm sorry-"

"No no no," he affirmed, "You said one trip. I shouldn't have assumed that just because..." He trailed off. Jessica came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I want to, Doctor. I really want to, but I can't. Not now." He nodded, but didn't say anything. "Will you be okay?"

"Course I will," he affirmed, immediately smiling at her, but she knew he was still disappointed. "I'm always okay."

They landed safely back in Jessica's yard. She took a final look around the TARDIS, and the humming in the back of her mind suddenly got a little bit stronger, as if the ship herself was saying goodbye. The thought made her smile.

When she stepped back into the sun, everything was exactly as she left it, her back door cracked open, the empty plates from the fish and custard sitting in the grass.

"It's only been five minutes since we left," said the Doctor, leaning casually against the TARDIS as Jessica wandered around her yard.

"Thanks again. And do me a favor," she stuck her hands in her pockets and smirked at him. "Don't forget about me, Doctor."

"I won't forget you," he promised solemnly, the corners of his mouth quirking up into a smile that kind of made Jessica want to run up and kiss him again, but she kept her distance.

"That's all I ask." She turned towards her house, but she paused for a moment before she went in. "Hey," she called, "Come back and visit me sometime. I just might take you up on that offer of yours." The Doctor beamed.

"Until then, Jessica." He tipped his fez (the ridiculous thing that it was), and stepped back into the TARDIS. it started to disappear slowly, the scratching, scraping noise filling the air.

She stood and watched it fade away, a sad smile on her face. She did want to go with him; that was the thing, just not right now. She wasn't ready.

She turned to go back inside, when she heard the _vworp_ of the TARDIS again.

"Doctor?" She called. She would never understand that man. He pushed the doors open, leaning out of the box while still standing inside.

"What I still don't understand is why the TARDIS brought me here in the first place," he said to her inquisitively. Then to the TARDIS he shouted, "Do you know something I don't?" Jessica chuckled. He looked so funny when he talked to his ship.

"That's a question for another day, Doctor," she instructed, pushing him back through the wooden blue doors. She pressed one more kiss to his mouth, threading her fingers through his hair as the Doctor floundered awkwardly. She laughed against his lips, and then whispered, "Go." He scowled, his face beet red, but did as he was told, shutting the door behind him, and this time when the TARDIS disappeared, it stayed that way.

Maybe someday he would come back for her. Maybe then, she'd be ready to take off and see the universe. But until then, Jessica promised not to forget what had happened that day.

She took the dusty blue pebble from the pocket of her jeans and stared at it. That was her proof. That everything that happened to her was real. It wasn't a dream or story she made up; it was real. Her Doctor was real, and he would come back for her if she wanted him to.

And she did.

* * *

The Doctor paced the control room. She said to come back for her one day. Did that mean she wanted to go with him? She was beautiful and clever and funny, and well, he was awkward and clumsy and probably not at all what she would have imagined for herself, and in all honesty it probably wasn't a good idea to get too close to her; humans were temperamental and she would age and he wouldn't, but all he could do was try. He had no guarantee, but he did have a time machine, and he was determined to go find out. There was just something about her. Something he didn't quite understand, but something that intrigued him nonetheless.

He set the coordinates for Jessica's backyard, 2018. Three years to the day. Then he thought better of it.

"Alright old girl," he shouted lovingly at the TARDIS. "Jessica said she needed me before. So, when does she need me next?"

**(Thank you so much for reading. Jessica, you're wonderful. Everyone else, I'm sure you're wonderful too. You'd be more wonderful if you left a review or a happy birthday message for this lovely young lady.**

**Much love,  
PrettyLittleMonster Xxx)**


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